Daily Times

FORT LAUDERDALE: Lionel Messi wore street clothes and watched from a sideline box as Montreal took advantage of several Inter Miami defensive miscues to hand his team its first loss of the season – a 3-2 defeat at home Sunday evening.

Messi did not play after previously being listed as questionable with a shin injury.

The injury happened in a 2-2 draw at Nashville in the CONCACAF Champions Cup last week. Messi went to contest a pass from Nashville’s Lukas Macnaughton, who appeared to step on the 36-year-old’s calf and cause his left ankle to twist. Trainers tended to Messi as he writhed in pain on the pitch in the 77th minute, but he remained in the match.

Messi left that match with a bruise, but head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said Sunday the team and Messi had previously agreed that he would rest against Montreal – no matter what happened at Nashville.

Martino has been tasked with finding ways to manage Messi’s workload and recovery as he has played every minute of Inter Miami´s first four games of the season.

Resting the eight-time Ballon d´Or winner makes sense – Inter Miami will play two more games over the next six days. That’s four games in a ten-day stretch. And Messi was called up to represent the Argentinian national team in a pair of Copa America warm-up matches on March 22 and 26. Inter Miami also has a match at New York on March 23.